Items I happen to view each day. Science, Technology, Management, Culture, and Writing

    This is my day book for this week. It is a log of things I see on the Internet.

This week: 5-11 February, 2024

Summary of this week:

• The Russians are still in Ukraine
• Israel-Gaza conflict continues
• Tech layoffs continue to continue
• Spyware and ransomware are both booming
• Microsoft updates CoPilot
• OpenAI moves into software agents
• Google creates $19.99/month service that includes all Google services and Gemini Advanced
• Joe Biden is officially "an elderly man with a poor memory"

Monday 5 February 2024

Where the money is: con artists are adopting new tools to steal money. If you have lots of money under your control, verify all requests for money. It is a pain, but something you should do.

More on how the promise of police wearing video cameras was never fulfilled. It is a shame and a problem for and caused by all of us. Police work for us. We are hiring and training poorly.

Quora was a place for questions and good answers. Then some folks answering questions started cheating so they could answer more questions and what usually happens when folks cheat happened.

Meanwhile in rural America, computing centers (noted here are those mining crypto currency), make lots of noise. Residents don't like it.

Meanwhile in China, technology import restrictions are driving the CCP towards the open RISC-V architecture for computers. RISC-V was never meant to be a trade-war tool.

And in Elon Musk's neighborhood, it appears that if you work in senior positions for Mr. Musk you join in partaking of illegal substances now and then.

Taylor Swift learns something from NFL coaches: cover your mouth when talking to folks won't read your lips.

One writer's list of apps for the Mac that are "essential."

A list of freelance writing courses.

Yet another piece on writer's block.

Career changes and doing something that you never thought you would do.

Examples of creating a personal brand.

Thoughts on writing your first book. Where to start? You start by putting your fingers on the keyboard.

Writing a blog in less time. My advice: create a long list of things to blog. Look at the list and write the one that you want. The "want to" means much.

Tuesday 6 February 2024

Claims that county governments across the US, especially in rural areas, are banning solar and wind farms.

Meanwhile at Microsoft, things have been great during the ten years that Steve Ballmer has retired.

And claims that big tech is out to destroy the world as we know it. Freedom will be gone as big tech monitors and controls everything.

I agree with this, "in theory all companies like adaptable people. In practice I find most job descriptions prefer specialists."

How to read a "daunting" paper. Good advice here.

I love this article. It tackles the topic of using AI to write code segments. As it says, "writing the code was never the hard part." Designing the solution after understanding the problem, that has always been the hard part. The really hard part is having other people talk to you about what is happening.

When to say "enough is enough," and quit a project.

Everyone wants a "copilot," i.e., a machine that helps you do your job. Some want to build a copilot. That isn't easy.

The new obesity drugs may have an application in the area of dementia. Let's proceed with caution. Then again, if your mother doesn't recognize you, why not try something?

User reviews on Apple's Vision Pro are arriving. As expected, they are mixed. $3,500 means a pretty high standard for performance. If it costs that much, it needs to be excellent.

I like this: Microsoft is proposing a project to save data for a thousand years using glass as storage media.

TSMC plans to build yet another plant in Japan. As TSMC moves more manufacturing off the island of Formosa, the impetus for the world to keep China from invading the island lessens. We shall see what transpires.

A case of 2x3=17. The engagement of the NFL with the music recording industry shows with a big jump in TV ratings for this year's Grammy Awards show.

Layoffs at Snap. The trend continues as jobs are disappearing.

Want a fake ID? Go to the website described in this article.

Microsoft and Semafor partner for a new news site. They will use real-live people to write the stories. Those people will use AI to research the stories.

Take care when challenging someonen to do something that they cannot. It appears that the Taylor Swift fake videos started with a challenge. You cannot beat these porn filters! Wrong. When will people learn? "This cannot be done!" That phrase should always be reframed as, "We do not know how to do this. Perhaps we will learn someday."

And now Roblox, among others, has real-time language translation worldwide. Is the a pivot in world history?

Google's Threat Analysis Group reports that spyware is advancing rapidly. Correct. Governments should be involved. Not sure about the second statement.

If you bought a Vision Pro from Apple, don't forget your password. Resetting the device is really difficult.

Where the money is: grab someone's assets online and hold them for ransom. Business is booming.

Wednesday 7 February 2024

King Charles, yes the one in London, has cancer. Details are scarce.

It appears that the folks at Boeing forgot how to build airplanes.

In what is a return to sanity after the PAN(dem)IC, Dartmouth has reinstated the SAT for standard testing of academic preparation.

AT&T wants to quit servicing landlines in California. I suppose this is the end of a 100-year era of telephones and connecting homes to one another.

OpenAI wants to build AI that aligns with most Americans. With a divided country, good luck with that endeavor.

How to put new technologies into America's Intelligence Community. Booz Allen Hamilton has a lot of wishes here, but little hope of anything happening.

It appears that Microsoft may put the sudo command into Windows. Maybe its just a typo or something just or the Unix Windows program.

Some early design patterns for AI systems. They missed the boat by at least 60 years.

"Imagined with AI" is Meta's way of saying, "We didn't make this. Some AI software made it."

We may have a new "world's best" open-source language model. It's called "Smaug-72B," and was released by a group calling itself Abacus AI.

Some colleges still use essays read by real persons as part of admittance. The essay readers can tell when essays are written by these chattering bots. Hint: have ChatGPT write your essay. Write something different from what it produced. It isn't difficult to judge when someone didn't write their essay.

OpenAI pledges to add watermarks to the images its software generates. Of course you can work around them, but it is nice to say you are doing something.

Goodbye Nation State; hello Network State. One starts up near Montenegro. Of course it is a gimmick so far, but maybe one day. Then someone will drive three tanks down main street and show the rich tech kids how real life works.

Our Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) tried to bring industry experts in when forming the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC). It flopped. Note, in Washington, getting the acronyms reserved is more important that getting the work done. Good intentions; wrong place. Sorry. I wish these things would work better.

Thursday 8 February 2024

This is so silly, I'll just quote it, "Contractors are questioning how the White House could ask for compliance with a procurement rule that is not even formally proposed yet." In other words, we are thinking of a new rule and want you to abide by it before we tell you what it is.

Some success in using lazers for fusion energy. We shall see.

According to GitHub, a pretty reliable source, here are the places showing growth in software developers. Bangladesh and Nigeria lead the list.

Musing about Apple's Vision Pro.

Let's test the software. How much is enough? How much is too much? What are we trying to accomplish?

Layoffs at Amazon.

I love this essay about the nature of software and the endless pursuit of growth (more money).

Meanwhile in China, someone thinks they can bring KFC and Pizza Hut to half the population in two years.

If it connects to the Internet, it can wreak havoc. Now we have a problem with electric toothbrushes.

Must-see video of a robot grabbing, lifting, and placing large objects.

Meanwhile in America, the Ford F-150 electric pickup truck is a dud. It is typical of the American EV market. It just hasn't happened.

Real news that isn't news: Federal agencies tend to exaggerate their use of AI when they think it is to their benefit.

If you measure via patents, IBM is beating both Google and Microsoft in generative AI.

Interest rates on 30-year mortgages remain almost 7%. Despite claims by some media outlets, the economy is not good.

OpenAI moves from generative AI into software agents that perform tasks.

Arm has a good financial quarter.

Disney, all forms of entertainment, puts $1.5Billion into Epic Games.

Without any fanfare, Microsoft releases a major change to CoPilot. See copilot dot microsoft dot com.

Friday 9 February 2024

Google changes Bard dot google dot com to Gemini dot google dot com. I suppose there is a good reason for this.

Apple releases MGIE (MLLM-Guided Image Editing). The software edits images based on text instructions.

Layoffs at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laborator.

Meanwhile in Massachusetts, they pass a law against wearing a VR headset while driving. I guess someone might try this? Seems like a law that you shouldn't pass.

Meanwhile in Finland, they are turning an abandoned mine into a gravity battery. Maybe something good will come of this.

Meanwhile in Washington D.C., fear and loathing about Federal teleworkers. If you work from home, you should be paid less than those forced to commute. Figure it out.

A long piece on the data industry.

Business transformation: YouTube is now the 4th biggest cable TV provider in the US.

The Iron Law of Bureaucracy hits Google full force as employees complain that managers are inept and boring.

Our Dept of Homeland Security is trying to hire 50 "AI experts" for its AI Corps. Good intentions abound.

And we now have an AI Safety Institute. It will write regulations (just what we don't need). It is placed inside NIST.

We now have competition in the $19.99-a-month AI+ market. Google releases Gemini Advanced to compete with ChatGPT Plus. Google's offering comes with several extras not included from OpenAI.

A special counsel investigation into classified documents at home describes the President as, "an elderly man with a poor memory." There, it is official. That is a nice way of avoiding felony charges of having classified material at home. And yes, Mr. Trump did the same as did the last half dozen Presidents. The law should apply to all of them. Just one citizen's humble opinion.

Our FCC outlaws fake voices on robocalls. How does an agency of the executive branch of government create legislation?

The money is pouring in at OpenAI. Profits? Not so sure about that.

John Walker dies at 75. He co-founded AutoDesk and wrote AutoCAD. Computer-Aided Design came to the personal computer and engineering design flourished. People used to buy special processor boards to put into a PC and boost AutoCAD performance.

Some confirmation that Microsoft is bring the sudo command to console sessions on Windows 11.

Meanwhile in professional wrestling, the WWE signs a big contract with X.

Saturday 10 February 2024

Here is a performance review of Google's new Gemini Advanced.

Microsoft formally introduces sudo for Windows.

A company called Brilliant Labs (great name) has AI smart glasses called Frame. No one has heard of them, but the product is good.

To extend the coverage of Starlink, SpaceX is using ships or barges at sea.

For what it's worth, "Nvidia is now worth as much as the whole Chinese stock market"

A little more detail on our current President and his poor memory. A jury wouldn't convict a sympathetic 80+ man with a poor memory. Mr. Biden isn't aware enough to willfully commit a crime. This is bad for all of us.

Layoffs at Grammarly.

Our current President launches the $5Billion National Semiconductor Technology Center.

Meanwhile in Canada, the governors want to outlaw a simple tool that helps a thief steal cars. Perhaps they will next outlaw hammers, screwdrivers, etc. which are also tools that help a thief steal a car.

Meanwhile in France, health insurance information for half the population was leaked. Let's hear it for national electronic health records.

Meanwhile in Ethiopia, half the folks living there have no electricity at home, but Chinese crypto miners have plenty of power to run their mines.

Elon Musk moves Neuralink from Delaware to Nevada after a Delaware judge rules against him in an unrelated legal case.

Where the money is: it was a booming year for those seeking to steal money online via fraud.

Layoffs at Cisco with thousands of jobs cut.

Going to the demand, big tech wants custom AI and other custom processors for data centers. Nvidia opens a new business unit to supply them.

Sunday 11 February 2024

Seth Godin has some comments on transitions. These in-between times are what throw us off course most of the time.

Once again, wearable computers are the most important thing in the world. We've been here before.

David Kahn dies at 93. His 1967 book change the world of cryptography. See "The Codebreakers: The Comprehensive History of Secret Communication from Ancient Times to the Internet"

Knowing better than everyone else, governors in nine states make it a law that people have to switch to heat pumps.

Those youngsters in Gen Z are going back to the library and checking out books with paper and ink. Good for them.

A long Sunday edition essay on how social media sites degraded themselves to the point where many of us hate them and what they do. Is there any escape?

TikTok has become the center of pirated music in the world. Teens play a copyrighted song while they dance. Sorry, that is illegal.

China exploits the technology of chiplets to bypass export restrictions. Take a few smaller processors and connect them.

Google One, a paid subscription from Google, hits 100million subscribers. Money, money, and more money.

Star Wars I is now 25 years old and will be back in theatres this year. The movie was bad. Is this a good idea?

A legislator in California declares himself to be an expert in testing software systems.

The Hutter Prize: looking or better lossless data compression.

Some companies have tried cloud computing and are moving back to having their own data centers.